The Assyrian Church of the East

Denomination·Founded 431 CE·est. 323,300 by the World Council of Churches figure; other estimates run to 400,000, and war and emigration have made counting harder since 2014.

Judaism → Christianity → The Church of the East → The Assyrian Church of the East

Assyrian Church of the East — Diocese of Western EuropeAssyrian Church of the East — Diocese of California

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Rite of The Assyrian Church of the East

The Qurbana of Addai and Mari.

The eucharistic prayer named for the apostles who evangelised Mesopotamia is probably the oldest in continuous use in any church, and it contains no institution narrative — no this is my body recited as a quotation. The words are dispersed through the prayer instead. In 2001 Rome, after study, ruled the anaphora valid as it stands.

⏱ Weekly on Sunday, and on the feasts of the Hudra◌ The parish; deacons chant the responses
Add to My Beliefs →
What happensThe Qurbana of Addai and Mari, chanted in Syriac, with leavened bread made from a dough said to descend from the loaf of the Last Supper
What it needsThe malka leaven, wine, and a deacon; the anaphora has no institution narrative to recite
What it aims atTo offer the oldest continuously used eucharistic prayer in Christendom
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this rite is held

The Anaphora of Addai and Mari is dated by liturgists to the third century in its core. Its lack of an institution narrative was for centuries treated in the West as a fatal defect. In January 2001 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith concluded after historical and theological study that the anaphora is valid as used, and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity issued guidelines in July 2001 allowing Chaldean Catholics to receive communion at Assyrian liturgies and the reverse where pastoral need required. The malka, a leaven kept and replenished from year to year, is said in the tradition to descend from the bread of the Last Supper, and it is one of the church's two extra sacraments alongside the sign of the cross.

From the sources — the passages this rests on; concise renderings, cited

The Anaphora of Addai and Mari is notable because, from time immemorial, it has been used without a recitation of the Institution Narrative.

Guidelines for Admission to the Eucharist between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, 20 July 2001

The same document records the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's conclusion of 17 January 2001 that the anaphora can be considered valid.

The same ground, other faiths

rites that share this one's ideas
The Eucharist. Christianity Go deeper →
The Mass. Catholicism Go deeper →
The liturgy is heaven on earth. Eastern Orthodoxy · core tenet Go deeper →
Word and sacrament. Lutheranism Go deeper →
The sacrament meeting. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Go deeper →
The Holy Qurbana. The Church of the East Go deeper →

The conversation

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Where next

The Assyrian Church of the East's Practice roomback up one layer Propose a change to this riteone button — it routes to the review pool

Numbers count Panfaith activity only — never real-world adherence.

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